RTB Home yesterday launched the outcomes of its 2026 U.S. Consumer Study, titled “Earlier than They Purchase,” shedding gentle on the depth and complexity of how Individuals analysis and buy merchandise on-line. The examine, performed in partnership with Cint – described because the world’s largest on-line analysis market – surveyed 1,000 respondents throughout 4 generational cohorts between December 2025 and January 2026. Every era was represented by 250 individuals: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Child Boomers.

The headline discovering is stark. Solely 40% of latest clients arrive at e-commerce websites with a particular merchandise in thoughts, in line with RTB Home. The remaining 60% are both looking with out agency intent or maintain solely unfastened buy goals, inserting appreciable weight on the standard of the consumer expertise and a model’s capability to seize consideration on the very first level of discovery.

“Every thing in right now’s e-commerce surroundings is being pushed by elevated depth of the analysis part and true generational divides through the present macroeconomic surroundings,” mentioned Jaysen Gillespie, VP of Product Advertising and marketing & Analytics at RTB Home. “Entrepreneurs can not depend on broad assumptions about their potential clients. To win, manufacturers should meet their clients throughout all units and out-maneuver rivals through the important analysis part.”

The consideration part comes first

One of many examine’s central arguments is that client journeys start with open-ended comparability, not dedicated intent. Based on RTB Home, 78% of consumers consider three or extra choices earlier than finishing a purchase order, combining those that evaluate 3-5 merchandise, 6-10 merchandise, and greater than 11. This habits holds throughout value bands. For a comparatively modest attire buy within the $30 to $100 vary, 47% of respondents evaluate between 3 and 5 choices, whereas 19% consider between 6 and 10. The numbers shift however don’t collapse for high-value purchases: for a $1,000 to $2,000 merchandise, 29% evaluate 3-5 choices and 22% evaluate 6-10.

The implication for digital advertisers is significant. A client in an energetic analysis part, evaluating a number of merchandise throughout a number of websites, represents a basically completely different concentrating on downside from a client with a single product and a bank card. The normal last-click attribution mannequin, which assigns conversion credit score to the ultimate touchpoint, misses most of what truly formed the choice. That hole between precise habits and commonplace measurement frameworks is one thing PPC Land has tracked across multiple industry reports and platform developments.

A number of website visits are the norm, not the exception

Choices not often occur in a single session. Based on the examine, 54% of consumers go to a website 2-3 occasions earlier than making a purchase order. Individually, 51% report visiting a number of web sites some or the entire time within the lead-up to purchasing. These figures describe a basically non-linear buy path, one the place a client might encounter a product on one website, analysis it on one other, examine critiques elsewhere, and solely then return to finish the transaction.

Cart abandonment is a particular second inside this sample, not an endpoint. The examine requested consumers why they delay purchases after including gadgets to a cart. The main cause, cited by 49% of respondents, is looking for a greater value elsewhere. An extra 40% say they’re ready for a reduction. These are energetic, price-conscious behaviors – not indecision. The patron who abandons a cart is often engaged in parallel comparability throughout a number of retailers, not merely distracted.

This information has a direct bearing on retargeting technique. RTB House’s own platform launch in March 2026, which launched rtb.com as a self-service programmatic retargeting software for small and medium-sized e-commerce manufacturers, displays a particular thesis: that behavioral alerts captured throughout a consumer’s looking session – merchandise seen, gadgets added to cart, development via checkout – are probably the most actionable information a retargeting system can use. The examine now offers quantitative context for why that issues.

Generational divides run via each metric

The information fragments sharply by era, and the variations are massive sufficient to alter marketing campaign technique. On determination timing, 50% of Gen Z consumers report requiring two or extra days of consideration after a product enters the cart earlier than they finalize a purchase order. Amongst Child Boomers, that determine is simply 24%. The implication is {that a} retargeting window optimized for Boomers – reaching them inside 24 hours of cart addition – will systematically underperform for Gen Z audiences, who’re statistically nonetheless in energetic consideration a day or two later.

Cell commerce exhibits an equally pronounced generational break up. Based on the examine, 42% of Gen Z store for style completely on cell, almost thrice the speed of Child Boomers. But 69% of all consumers – throughout generations – report discovering new manufacturers on cell. Cell is the place model consciousness is constructed. The system used to finalize the acquisition, nonetheless, varies significantly. Greater than 50% of customers use each telephone and pc for higher-stakes transactions similar to reserving journey or buying home equipment. PC-based commerce is just not declining into irrelevance; it stays the popular surroundings for bigger monetary commitments, no matter the place a product was first encountered.

These device-switching patterns create measurement challenges. A client who discovers a model on a smartphone advert, researches the product on a laptop computer, and completes the acquisition on a pill generates a fragmented sign path throughout commonplace analytics configurations. Generational shopping behavior research released in July 2025 by Vibenomics additionally documented robust generational variations in promoting response, discovering that in-store audio advertisements have an effect on Gen Z buy choices greater than 5 occasions as strongly as they have an effect on Child Boomers.

A Okay-shaped financial image

The examine introduces what it describes as a “Okay-shaped economic system” in client spending. Gen X and Child Boomers are almost twice as prone to cut back their spending in 2026 in comparison with Gen Z. Youthful cohorts report the next probability of accelerating future expenditure; older generations are pulling again, citing present macroeconomic circumstances. In mixture, in line with RTB Home, youthful cohorts are 50% extra prone to spend greater than older cohorts.

This divergence issues for funds allocation choices. A marketing campaign optimized for broad attain throughout all age teams will, by definition, apply equal stress to audiences with very completely different spending trajectories. The RTB Home information means that spending intent in 2026 is just not uniformly distributed – it’s concentrated in youthful demographics who’re additionally, concurrently, probably the most research-intensive and mobile-dependent consumers. They require extra touchpoints, take longer to determine, and are reached most effectively on cell. This mixture of attributes locations explicit stress on full-funnel programmatic approaches fairly than remoted point-of-purchase ways.

PPC Land’s coverage of holiday shopping sentiment research from November 2025 discovered comparable generational splits, with Gen Z exhibiting the best optimism (33%) about their monetary state of affairs whereas Boomers remained probably the most cautious at simply 15%.

A fourth dimension of the examine issues the reliability of conventional promotional moments. Based on RTB Home, when consumers have been requested about reductions obtained on Black Friday purchases, 22% mentioned they obtained a 21-30% low cost – the most typical response – whereas 15% reported receiving no low cost in any respect. That could be a significant share of Black Friday consumers who paid full value, or near it.

The examine additionally examined how often consumers discover new e-commerce web sites over a 12-month interval. The commonest response, at 37%, was that they visited no new web sites. However 36% visited between 2 and 4 new websites. Deal-seeking habits, in line with RTB Home, is fragmented: some customers stay loyal to established retailers, whereas others transfer actively throughout platforms when their worth expectations go unmet – and that motion usually occurs outdoors scheduled promotional home windows.

Based on the examine, nearly 60% of the inhabitants reported “some or frequent” switching between retailers in 2025, pushed primarily by pricing and reductions. Model loyalty is clearly not a sturdy state; it’s a situation that requires ongoing upkeep, notably for price-sensitive segments.

This discovering complicates the usual retail calendar mannequin. If a consumer is actively looking for a greater value within the days after including an merchandise to a cart, the second of most receptivity to a reduction provide is just not Black Friday or Cyber Monday – it’s every time that shopper is in energetic comparability mode. Research from Admetrics released in October 2025documented comparable stress on promotional calendars, noting that Black Friday 2024 generated $10.8 billion in on-line gross sales whereas underscoring that algorithmic personalization – not fastened calendar occasions – more and more drives which gives customers see and act upon.

Context and methodology

The “Earlier than They Purchase” examine was produced in partnership with Cint and surveyed 1,000 digitally recruited U.S. customers, frivolously compensated for his or her time. The pattern was divided evenly: 250 respondents per generational cohort throughout Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Child Boomers. Knowledge assortment ran from December 2025 via January 2026. RTB Home, based in 2012, is a Warsaw-based adtech firm that operates greater than 3,000 energetic campaigns throughout the EMEA, APAC, and Americas areas. Its expertise stack is constructed on Deep Studying algorithms utilized to behavioral alerts from the open net.

The discharge of the examine coincides with a interval of energetic product improvement at RTB Home. On March 4, 2026 – simply three weeks earlier than this report – the corporate launched rtb.com, a self-service programmatic retargeting platform concentrating on small and medium-sized e-commerce manufacturers which have traditionally been unable to afford enterprise-grade programmatic entry. The behavioral information in “Earlier than They Purchase” – notably the findings on multi-visit consideration journeys and cart abandonment motivations – offers the empirical context wherein that product operates.

For the advertising neighborhood, the examine arrives at a second when intent-based concentrating on fashions are beneath growing scrutiny. The belief {that a} consumer who visits a product web page has shaped clear, steady buy intent is challenged by the 51% of consumers who concurrently go to a number of websites and the 49% who’re actively attempting to find a greater value after including an merchandise to a cart. IAB research published in January 2026 additional difficult the image by documenting that Gen Z belief in promoting has declined sharply, making the standard and timing of advert publicity extra consequential than uncooked frequency.

Timeline

Abstract

Who: RTB Home, a world adtech firm based in 2012 and headquartered in Warsaw, performed the examine in partnership with Cint, the world’s largest on-line analysis market. Jaysen Gillespie, VP of Product Advertising and marketing & Analytics at RTB Home, is the named spokesperson.

What: The “Earlier than They Purchase” 2026 U.S. Shopper Research, a quantitative survey of 1,000 American customers, paperwork how consumers throughout 4 generational cohorts analysis, evaluate, and in the end full purchases on-line. Key findings embrace that 60% of e-commerce guests arrive with no particular merchandise in thoughts, that 78% consider three or extra choices earlier than shopping for, that 54% go to a website a number of occasions earlier than buying, and that Gen Z takes twice so long as Boomers to finalize a purchase order after including an merchandise to a cart.

When: The survey was performed between December 2025 and January 2026. The findings have been launched on March 23, 2026, by way of Enterprise Wire.

The place: The examine focuses completely on U.S. customers, surveyed digitally via Cint’s analysis market. RTB Home operates globally throughout EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, with greater than 3,000 energetic campaigns.

Why: The examine was launched to doc the hole between conventional intent-based fashions of client habits – which assume linear, dedicated buy paths – and the precise, research-heavy, multi-device, multi-visit patterns that characterize how Individuals store on-line in 2026. The findings present quantitative grounding for retargeting and full-funnel promoting methods, notably related as RTB Home expands its personal programmatic product choices.


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